EU Commission says Visa and MasterCard broke no rules

Visa and MasterCard’s refusal to process payments for whistleblowing website WikiLeaks is unlikely to have violated EU anti-trust rules, says the European Commission. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has revealed his surprise at the decision; following his claims that the documents released by the commission showed that far-right politicians in the US were behind the blockade, which he says has wiped out 95% of WikiLeaks’ revenues.

“It is concerning that hard-right elements in the United States have been able to pressure Visa and Mastercard into introducing a blockade that the US treasury has rightly rejected,” said Assange.

WikiLeaks filed a formal complaint against Visa and MasterCard in October 2011, after they blocked payments to the website following its publication of sensitive US diplomatic cables and documents. However, the Commission believes that no EU rules on anti-trust were broken. It said in a statement: “On the basis of the information available, the Commission considers that the complaint does not merit further investigation because it is unlikely that any infringement of EU competition rules could be established.”

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